The present disclosure relates to an electronic animal training apparatus and system that is worn on the body of an animal such as a dog or a cat to deliver stimulation to train the animal or correct the animal's behavior.
In the field of animal training, owners or trainers (hereinafter referred to as ‘users’) have employed various electric and electronic technologies in correcting animal's behavior since the late 1960s. For example, Patent Literature 1 (U.S. Pat. No. 7,222,589) discloses a collar type device having a sensor to detect a dog barking and an electrical stimulator to deliver an electrical stimulus to the dog, in which an electrical stimulus is delivered to a dog having the collar type device worn around the neck when the sensor detects the dog barking. Also, Patent Literature 2 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,535) discloses an animal training system including a collar type device and a remote controller possessed by a user that conducts radio-frequency wireless communications with the collar type device, in which the user takes control to deliver stimulation such as electrical stimulation to the collar type device through the remote controller when a dog does a behavior needed to correct, such as, for example, barking, going beyond a preset boundary or attacking a human.
Using such electronic animal training devices or systems, animals (typically dogs, but animals may be other pets such as cats or livestocks) are trained to do good behaviors. Also, electronic animal training devices or systems have advanced by employing electronic and communication technologies that are developing day by day, and are gaining excellent effects in training hunting dogs or pets.
Recently, with the trend of recognizing pets such as dogs or cats ‘animal companions’ more than merely ‘pets’, delivering electrical stimulation to animals is considered as animal abuse, and the way to prohibit such acts or replace electrical stimulation with other types of stimulation is being sought. In keeping with this trend, consideration is being taken of an animal training apparatus using vibration stimulation using a vibration motor or a piezoelectric device as a main stimulation means in place of electrical stimulation.
However, this vibration stimulation has lower intensity of stimulation than conventional electrical stimulation and lower effect on correction of animal's behavior, so vibration stimulation has been simply used as an auxiliary stimulation means for getting the animal's attention or encouraging or complimenting the animal when the animal did a good behavior, rather than stimulation means for scolding the animal when the animal did a bad behavior.